Since their not-so-quiet arrival on the U.S. political scene, the tea party has garnered a great deal of attention and found growing support among disgruntled Americans, many of whom are Catholics.

A study commissioned earlier this year by the National Review Institute found that 28 percent of tea party supporters identified themselves as Catholic. Yet while the movement may include aspects that are attractive to practicing Catholics, there are also serious questions about whether the at times radical views and controversial practices seen from tea party protesters fit with the teachings of the Church.

Rooted in frustration

Although the tea party movement lacks a centralized leadership, with its divergent branches representing an array of different interests and viewpoints, the groups common focus is on limited government and reduced taxation, creating a political ideology that combines elements of libertarianism and populism.

While populist movements have a long track record in the United States, Catholic historian David OBrien told Our Sunday Visitor that they have generally been associated with Midwestern or Southern Protestants and, in some cases, have been fueled in part by anti-Catholic sentiment. But the tea party movement has grown out of a shared frustration over the nations current economic situation  something Catholics are not immune to  giving it a strong appeal.

People are either out of work and dont think they are ever going to get a job again, or they are very fearful of losing what are not very good jobs to begin with, said OBrien, the University Professor of Faith and Culture at the University of Dayton. Theres this huge anxiety, and that cuts across religions, races, even classes.

But among Catholics, he said, the support for the tea party movement has been unique.

What strikes me is that even though Catholics are attracted to this movement, there really is a pretty sharp tension between some of the basic teachings of the Church in regards to politics, the role of government and what we owe to the poor, and what these tea party advocates are promoting, Schneck told Our Sunday Visitor.

Church teaching, he explained, has an inseparable link between rights and responsibilities for both the citizen and the government, with both having an eye toward promoting the common good. The tea parties, however, have argued for rights based on liberty, not responsibility.

From that perspective its all about getting the government out of our lives and about citizens being free from the demands and needs of the country as a whole, Schneck said. Much as we might like otherwise, the Catholic argument is that government and citizen are equally expected to be our brothers keeper.

While the U.S. bishops have supported the idea of universal health care, tea party activists have commonly called for the repeal of Congress health care legislation. And positions argued by tea party activists on issues such as immigration, Social Security and the governments regulation of racial discrimination by businesses dont fit within the principles of Catholic social teaching, Schneck said.

That kind of thinking is at odds with Catholic thinking about solidarity, about the common good and about the role that the political order should be playing in regards to the dignity of the human person, he said. So theres actually quite a distance between what the tea party is advocating and the Churchs general understanding of how politics and governance should work.

Common ground

Not everyone agrees, however, that there is a divergence between the views of the Church and tea party ideals.

According to Father Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, the radical extremists in the tea party represent only a small percentage on the fringes of the movement. At its heart, Father Sirico said, the tea party and its view of government are very close to the Churchs social teaching on the principle of subsidiarity, which favors doing things on a simplified level rather than leaving them to a more complex, centralized organization.

I think the majority of the people who are involved in the tea party movement prefer things to be done at the most local level possible, Father Sirico told OSV. They are not against government in principle, they are against the excessiveness of government that we see, and thats expressed in the principle of subsidiarity.

Many of the stances tea party activists have taken on political issues also would resonate with Catholic voters, Father Sirico said. For example, many practicing Catholics would likely agree with the tea partys concern about the overreaching involvement of government in schools and health care, he said, and though the movement has hesitated to identify itself as pro-life, the majority of tea party activists appear to be in agreement with the Churchs stance on abortion.

But while he doesnt feel that there is a conflict for Catholics to join the tea party, Father Sirico said, he does think tea party advocates could benefit from a greater understanding of Catholic teaching.

The thing Catholics could teach the tea party is that not every social obligation needs to be viewed with suspicion, he said. We recognize that human nature is social as well as individual, and we balance these things out. To say I have an obligation to the poor is [to say] society has an obligation to the poor.

It is not to say that the government should be the first resort for those problems, he said. But I think some of the tea party are a little too quick to just dismiss social justice out of hand.

Scott Alessi writes from New Jersey.

Catholic support for the Tea Party (sidebar)

A poll conducted earlier this year by McLaughlin and Associates for the National Review Institute posed a number of questions to Catholics about their views on current political issues and party affiliation. Questions regarding the tea party indicated that among Catholics who regularly attend Mass, there is a fair amount of support for the movement, but that support wont necessarily translate to votes for tea party-backed candidates at the polls. A sampling of the studys findings:

59% say the tea party is driven by legitimate concern over the U.S. economys future, 21% say it is driven by anger

58% sympathize with the tea party protests, 25% do not

8% would vote for a congressional candidate fielded by the tea party, while 28% say they would vote Republican, 28% Democrat and 36% undecided

Honestly, I only skimmed it. But I did note something in there about “our duty to the poor.” That tells me it’s written from a Social Teaching standpoint that tends toward Socialism. I see it as trying to drive a wedge into the Catholic vote. If we actually supported our Catholic faith, no party would dare oppose our values... and America would live up to its founding. Our enemies know this.

6
posted on 10/22/2010 3:34:59 PM PDT
by pgyanke
(You have no "rights" that require an involuntary burden on another person. Period. - MrB)

I must have been asleep at Mass for about 40 years. When did the Catholic Church begin teaching that governments are supposed to be our brother’s keeper? I seem to remember we as individual Catholics are to be our brother’s keepers. I do not remember reading anything in the New Testament where Jesus said, “Oh, just let the government steal from everyone it can to reward those who are in need.”

Professor Shenk and anyone else teaching this apostacy need to be excommunicated.

The Founding Fathers of the United States asserted their claim to freedom and independence on the basis of certain "self-evident" truths about the human person: truths which could be discerned in human nature, built into it by "natures God." Thus they meant to bring into being, not just an independent territory, but a great experiment in what George Washington called "ordered liberty": an experiment in which men and women would enjoy equality of rights and opportunities in the pursuit of happiness and in service to the common good. Reading the founding documents of the United States, one has to be impressed by the concept of freedom they enshrine: a freedom designed to enable people to fulfill their duties and responsibilities toward the family and toward the common good of the community. Their authors clearly understood that there could be no true freedom without moral responsibility and accountability, and no happiness without respect and support for the natural units or groupings through which people exist, develop, and seek the higher purposes of life in concert with others.

The American democratic experiment has been successful in many ways. Millions of people around the world look to the United States as a model in their search for freedom, dignity, and prosperity. But the continuing success of American democracy depends on the degree to which each new generation, native-born and immigrant, makes its own the moral truths on which the Founding Fathers staked the future of your Republic. Their commitment to build a free society with liberty and justice for all must be constantly renewed if the United States is to fulfill the destiny to which the Founders pledged their "lives . . . fortunes . . . and sacred honor."

Exactly. This article is so far off, it's difficult to know where to begin.

While I am not Catholic, I do understand the actual teaching regarding so called "social justice." The neglected and almost unknown principle of subsidarity

subsidiarity [səbˌsɪdɪˈærɪtɪ]n

1. (Christianity / Roman Catholic Church) (in the Roman Catholic Church) a principle of social doctrine that all social bodies exist for the sake of the individual so that what individuals are able to do, society should not take over, and what small societies can do, larger societies should not take over

This, of course, flies in the face of the trends that date back to 1865 in America and have accelerated to warp speed in the 20th century as the centralizers win every battle they fight.

15
posted on 10/22/2010 3:46:45 PM PDT
by don-o
("At this point, Islam is just surging into a vacuum" - Mrs Don-o)

According to Father Robert Sirico, president of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, the radical extremists in the tea party represent only a small percentage on the fringes of the movement.

Did I miss the part where he defines "radical extremists"?

19
posted on 10/22/2010 3:55:15 PM PDT
by don-o
("At this point, Islam is just surging into a vacuum" - Mrs Don-o)

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